Padmanabhan Punch Pleased. Why?

 Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

"I've been trying to reach you since morning, but not able to," complained Padmanabhan, affectionately known as Paddy, from Chennai oven phone. The senior citizen is a veteran freight forwarder and runs an exim academy imparting logistics education in Tamil to wannabe supply chain and logistics professionals.

The cause for his excitement was his latest posting on social media which elicited the maximum number of views. The posting was short and sweet. It read:

Truck pilots, that is how I would like to call them, they are the front-line warriors in combating Covid. Pity that this community is not yet given its due recognition. (sic)


 The viewers' tally stood at 1677 on Saturday night (12 June 2021) when he called. It drew more than a dozen comments. For instance, "They can be called pilots, but they are not given the recognition they deserve, for the entire logistics industry's efficiency wrests in their untiring hands which has a direct contribution to the growth of our economy. There are several transport associations to meet their selfish goals but not these poor clans serving our economy relentlessly. They certainly need an appropriate forum to represent their interests and rights genuinely. If anyone on this platform can take up a mission for their cause will be most befitting," wrote R Balakrishnan, an independent logistics and supply chain professional. 

Rakesh Kumar Srivastava, Head of Business Operations at Universal Logistics took cudgels: "Why disrespect by calling them pilot when the word driver is strong enough to represent their capabilities. One who can drive ahead. On whom the entire business is depended."

"Government will never consider the pain effort transport community contributes to the nation which is very sad," lamented Praveen BV, CEO at Yolo Bus India and Swaminathan seconded that "individually they deserve to be more supported and skilled, internally as a union of transport they are so fragmented. One strong voice for them is a void so long and it is weird."

Padmanabhan's joy made me equally happier. Truck drivers are getting a lot more traction, thanks to Covid. Suddenly the word "supply chain" has entered the general public's lexicon. Right from the Prime Minister to the paanwala on the roadside uses this word directly indicating supply constraints. Simply put, the paanwala has to wait longer for the supply for his Banarasi betel leaves since March 2020. No regular supply. Yes, his supply chain is disrupted. Prime Minister's supply chain woes are much larger. After all, he has to cater to the needs of the 1.3 billion populace. 

What's there in a name, rhetorically posed William Shakespeare. A rose is a rose by whatever name you call it. I disagree with the Bard of Avon. Maybe he was spot on about rose, but he had no clue about truck drivers, particularly Indian ones. The designation as a driver does not sound classy or respectful vis-a-vis calling one a 'pilot'.  My cold supply chain friend Capt Pawanexh Kohli, a Merchant Navy hand, who had moved tonnes of perishable foods and vegetables across the globe for several decades, used to identify himself as a "driver of ships". "We navigate or drive ships on seas, like pilots driving planes in the sky or truck drivers steering vehicles on roads," was his usual pitch. 

Still, there is a sea difference (pun intended!) between designating one as a driver or a pilot. The concept of dignity of labor is in short supply in India. Driver, it is assumed to be a low-level chore. Not at par with the so-called white-collar job. Not even at the same level as the blue-collar factory workers. Astonishingly, a long-haul truck driver makes more money than a factory worker, though not enjoying any formal employer-employee relationship with his motor malik and despite lack of job security. Such a real-life challenge does not worry him much. 

Everyone labels truck drivers as the backbone of the economy. Nice sounding. Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis, Adanis, Mahindras may have excellent products - world-class or otherwise. Until these products reach the marketplace, they are meaningless. Best roads, best vehicles again are redundant in the absence of that man behind the steering. That crucial is his role. Not to be forgotten that we are living in an age of outsourcing. Nobody makes any product from scratch to the finish. Vendors make components and the big boys "assemble" them into the final, branded product. Remove drivers and all economic activity comes to a standstill. 

Not that Prime Minister does not understand the vitality of these unsung soldiers on highways. Yet, there is reluctance on the government's part to declare them as "frontline workers" thus putting them in the same league alongside healthcare and sanitary professionals. No covid insurance was extended to them. 

So, calling them pilots is just wordplay. Such a change in nomenclature is unlikely to make the world respect drivers. The need of the hour is habit change, not of drivers but the entire society. It is a big ask. 

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Way back in 2010 when I began my tryst with long haul truck drivers, there was very little talk about their plight: both working and living lives. Today, there is a perceptible change. I can understand transporters' angst which assumed a larger dimension in the past 2-3 years because their earning is fully dependent on these less privileged and much-maligned truck drivers. Post-Covid, drivers are getting more attention outside the pure vanilla transport fraternity. Good development. 

But for Covid, there might not have been so much spotlight on truck drivers. I wonder whether Padmanabhan's posting on social media would have elicited a good response for the first time. Paddy, you owe your newfound popularity to the truck driver fraternity. 

One final word: actually, drivers don't give a fig leaf whether we call them "drivers" or "pilots". They are on auto mode, unmindful of the world treating them shabbily. Otherwise, how one can explain their selfless service of moving goods of all types throughout Covid, notwithstanding no food, no water, and nothing but highway highhandedness across Indian highways! 



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